Queen, Paul Rodgers split up

Paul Rogers (L) and Brian May perform on stage during the "Queen + Paul Rogers European Tour 2008" in Riga September 19, 2008. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins

DETROIT (Billboard) - Queen will no longer rock you — at least not with Paul Rodgers.

Ahead of a summer reunion tour with his primary band Bad Company, the singer said the Queen + Paul Rodgers collaboration is, in effect, over, and without animosity.

“At this point we’re gonna sit back from this,” Rodgers told Billboard.com. “My arrangement with (Queen’s Brian May and Roger Taylor) was similar to my arrangement with Jimmy (Page) in The Firm in that it was never meant to be a permanent arrangement.

“I think we made a huge success of it, actually. We did two world tours and a couple of live recordings, and...made a studio album (2008’s commercially disappointing ‘The Cosmos Rocks’) which was pretty historical for (May and Taylor) because they hadn’t really gone in the studio with anybody and recorded something like that for a very long time. So it was quite an achievement, I think.”

Rodgers did not rule out the possibility of working together again, however. “It’s kind of an open book, really. If they approach me to do something for charity, for instance, or something like that...I’d be very much into doing that, for sure.”

The Queen + Paul Rodgers project dates back to 2004, when they joined forces for a set at the inaugural U.K. Music Hall of Fame Awards. They subsequently toured Europe and Japan in 2005 — resulting in the first live album and DVD, “Return of the Champions” — and North America in 2006. The group will release another concert album and DVD, “Live in Kharkov,” on June 16, which was recorded at a televised September 12 performance in Ukraine to support “The Cosmos Rocks.”

Bad Company — Rodgers plus guitarist Mick Ralphs and drummer Simon Kirke — kicks off its 10-date U.S. tour on June 17 at the Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood, Florida.